A Heart of Nightshade
by NightshadeTheFennekin
Summary: (I HAVE DROPPED THIS ALTOGETHER!)
1. Escape from a Tyrant's Land

Pokémon Eggs, a mysterious topic. Some can hold easy to get Pokémon like a Rattata, or rare Pokémon, like Absol. Sometimes, these Pokémon are even rarer with a special trait, that does nothing for their well-being in terms of things like speed. It just increases their value across the Pokémon world. These special Pokémon are known as being Shiny. Shiny Pokémon are just a different color, and are highly sought after by Pokémon Trainers. Some are the lucky catch in the wild, some are the special ones in Eggs, some come from trades. But being shiny means you are forever hunted by the selfish, the greedy. And that never helped me.

"Wait- ?!" I gasped as I was thrown onto the ground, and the air was slammed out of my lungs. The edges of my vision pulsed black, and I looked up at a sneering, familiar, Fennekin face. I got up, ignoring the black closing in, and grit my teeth. He held up one last morsel of the dinner we were supposed to share, grinned, and ate it.

"What's wrong, Nightshade? Go out and eat your own kind if your so hungry." He laughed, and my ears fell flat to my head. _Very funny. Eat a Nightshade flower? As if. _"Oh, your shtill mwad at your big brudder." he teased in baby talk, and licked his paw.

"If only I knew more advanced fire attacks, Wisp, you woul-"

"I would what? Be dead? As if. You're so weak, you can't even bring yourself to kill one Pidgey for me!" He slammed his paw down on my head, bringing it to the ground. My Delphox parents started to emerge from a nearby tunnel in our underground den, and he immediately started to grin, and changed his tone, "Hah! I win again, Nighty!" He let me squirm out from under his paw.

"Oh, were you two playing again? You guys are so precious!" my mother sat down in front of us, smiling.

"I guess you could call it playing..." I stood up, and tried to brush the dirt off of my gray fur, before Wisp pulled me into a hug.

"Oh yes, I love playing with her! It's so fun, even if you never win, Nighty." Wisp chuckled.

"Well isn't that nice!" My father sat next to my mother, both insanely oblivious to the real picture.

I slipped out of the hug easily, being near bone thin, and scowled. "I'm going to head to my room. Good night." My family waved to me happily as I headed into another tunnel next to the main one that leaded up to the surface, and moved my barrier, door... Thing... To the entranceway and sighed. "Sweet freedom from that tyrant. If only my fur wasn't as gray as to moon, and my fire as silver as the stars. Why am I using so many damned descriptive words?! This is serious." I flopped down on the makeshift pile of leaves that was my bed, and sighed. "Its been fourteen years since I hatched, and eleven since I had to serve Wisp like a Peasant. Why am I not doing anything?!"

I paced around my room for a while, sulking. Slowly, I straightened up, remembering something. I kicked away my tattered bed, and looked at where the back had been. A small tunnel spiraled up to the surface. "I should still be able to fit in this thing still..." I muttered, squeezed my ears to my head, and generally tried to make myself even smaller. I remembered that this was my old tunnel to the surface that I had dug at age seven. A failed escape had made me near-forget this pathway to the light. Luckily, my parents had forgotten to cover it up, them being unable to find any trace of it in my room, or above. "Heh. I was a sneaky bastard back then." I turned back to look at my room, one last time, and headed up carefully. "Nothing's of use in there. Everything in there, I can get in the forest... Goodbye, tyrant. Your slave has escaped." I grinned and clawed my way up to the surface, popping up in the middle of a bush.

I pushed my way out of it, finally breathing fresh air for once in the longest time. The Noibat screeched overhead in the Pokémon Village, and I turned and looked at my home. "You guys will be needing this..." A wide smile flashed onto my face, and I lay down a few silver embers, then blew on them. A fire started to burn, and the flames turned into a red blaze, along with the embers. "There we go! You'll need more that just a few Floatzel from the river in the forest to clean THIS up. Have fun." I turned and ran, my old home smoldering behind me, a smile on my face, and a cruel life set behind me. Well... Minus that last thing.

**Author's Notes: Dangit, it's STILL short?! Well, at least it sounds a bit better... Anyone who's going to say I didn't put enough description about Wisp and Nightshade's parents, they will come back eventually in a future chapter.**


	2. Out of the Hellhole and into the Void

I left that place with no regrets, just a broad, creepy smile on my face. I was ready to tackle the world that I didn't know, or so I thought. It had been about an hour now, sprinting away from that hellhole where horrors are created, when I finally stopped. I heard nothing moving towards me, so I sat and took a break. "Thin as ever... At least I won't have a greedy brother taking all my food." I muttered, and turned around. An orange glow barely stretched up to the night sky. "Guess my fire's done its work! Heh!" With a smile, I got up and started again.

"Oh, talking to myself, am I? Well it only makes sense. I'll probably be a lon-" A rustle emerged from a bush behind me, and I whirled around. "Who's there?!" I hissed, lashing my gray tail.

"Eep! She noticed! What do we do-" the voice was cut off in a choke.

"If only you were an Umbreon, this would be so much easier." A cracked voice growled. There was another rustle, and a purple glow emanated from the bush. _Wait... Aw sh-_ An explosion sent dirt and different plant life flying, I scrabbled for my footing, and faced the Pokémon that were in the bush. A Gengar stood glaring at an Eevee he was holding roughly in his hands. His red eyes slowly focused on me. "Hello..." He dropped the Eevee, and it shrank back. "Looks like this should be an easy catch. You're off the hook for now." He hissed at the Eevee.

"Y-yes sir! I'm t-thankful for you sparing my l-life!" The Eevee stuttered, and stepped behind the Gengar.

"You better be thankful. Now, as for this shiny Fennek-"

"Nightshade..." I growled.

"Mhm. Nightshade. Come along with me." An iron grip seemed to close around my throat, and I gasped. The Gengar held his hand in a fist, and shadows darker than the night around all of us had closed around my neck.

"Wha- Glk!" I gasped for breath, and the last thing I saw as I weakly clawed at the darkness was the Gengar's glowing eyes, the nervous Eevee, and the surrounding trees seeming to close in.

I opened my eyes slowly, blinking at the little bits of sunlight filtering in between the imposing gray trees that stood in an almost-perfect square. The hard, gray, packed dirt I lay on was colder than snow, and my muscles were cramped. "How long was I sleeping...?" I grunted, and got up. My paws made a clang on the ground, and I slowly bent down to inspect it. I slowly tapped it. "Wait... This isn't dirt... Steel?" I tapped the trees, and my heart lurched. "More steel. Is this? A cage?!"

Red eyes flashed open from the front of the cage, and I shrank back. "You're correct! That's only the first good part about this place!" The same voice croaked out of the shadows. I heard a snap, and light flooded around me. The Gengar stood, arms crossed, that creepy signature smile Gengars have bright on his face. "Oh yeah, I forgot about something! Welcoming package for the newest member of our community!"

Voices, flat in a monotone droned around the room, "Welcome Nightshade." My eyes darted around. Countless Pokémon stood hunched over in various cages. The Eevee from before sat staring at the ground to the left of my cage, but something I didn't see before was drooping down his neck. A long braid, tied up in a black band and dotted with small spikes hung limp from between his ears. To the right, an elderly Charizard was hunched over, fiddling with a black charm at the end of a black spiked ribbon.

"Now, I believe I should give you the tour! Sound good?" The Gengar asked.

"Uh, n-" I started to say.

"Well ya get no say in this place, so shut your trap." He hissed. The front of the cage turned black, and the shadow hand grabbed me by the neck again, this time not as rough. Which doesn't say much... It pulled me right through the shadow, and out into the cage hallway right next to Gengar. "Okay runt, this here is where I keep all my... Workers..." Gengar croaked. "Or, slaves. Fabulous, is it not! The Pokémon who've been here for their entire lives get an upgrade to their cage. See this dimwit over here with the braid?" He pointed at the Eevee, which shrank back in fear. "He was brought here as an Egg. Therefore, he got a water bottle in his cage! It's a luxury here..." He jerked me aside, and continued to walk to the right.

I turned carefully. To the left was a thick-looking stone wall, and pressed up to it were a Seviper and Arbok. _No doubt they're the guards..._ I thought, and looked forward again. Gengar was walking down the hallway to a set of heavy doors. "First, I think I should get you you're... Adorable uniform!" he laughed.

"Uniform...?" I was barely able to gasp out. The shadow hand fixed it's grip around my neck, and I squirmed in pain.

"Yes, uniform!" He chuckled, and pushed open the door using a different shadow hand. Grandly, he walked out, and I looked around. It looked like a massive cave, and the ceiling was covered in countless twisting vines, roots, and... Snake-like Pokémon. _Gross... _I thought, and tore my eyes away. Suddenly, the shadow hand threw me down onto a chair that was guarded by an Ekans and an Arbok. I gasped, the air thrown out of me, as the Ekans coiled itself around me as a restraint. _Snakes! They're so damn gross and cold! _I shuddered, and Gengar walked off.

Only one minute later, he returned, a black spiked collar in hand. Gengar took a clawed hand, and slashed it across one of my forelegs. I grit my teeth as he took the drops of blood and rubbed them on the collar. The collar leaped out of his hand, buzzing with arcs of what looked like to be the same thing the shadow hand was made of. After a second, it wrapped itself tightly around my neck, and sealed itself on. "There we go, newbie. Just so you know, don't take that collar off. You'll die of what you're most afraid of. Perfectly gruesome, don't you think?" With that, the Ekans uncoiled and the shadow hand grabbed me.

_This... Is going to worse than the hellhole..._

**Author's Notes: I'll respond to every comment I get here. *whispers loudly XD* I'll take OC's for the jail! You have to post full information. Name, Pokémon, Shiny or not, what cursed item they received from Gengar, their personality, and perhaps their age and length of time they've been in the jail. Question Time!****cresentxmcx: Hey Cresent! I dunno why I was banned, which sucks... But PM me okay?****LovingTogetic: I can put your OC in now if you want my to. Or I can save her for later.**


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